


Growing Up Means Having To Make the Hard Decisions

by liz_mo



Category: A-Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-18
Updated: 2010-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-13 18:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/140255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liz_mo/pseuds/liz_mo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frankie had always been a fan of The Aquamaniac. He absolutely hates the day he meets him in person. Set right before ep1 of Season 5.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing Up Means Having To Make the Hard Decisions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JoZPierce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoZPierce/gifts).



> Yuletide fic for Jo Z Pierce. That was quite a challenge, indeed. Frankie centric fic, phew. *wipes forehead* I hope you like how this turned out. This would not have been possible without the fastest beta in the world and huge supporter - the lovely Genteelrebel.

Frankie Santana loved Hollywood.

It was the place where dreams came true.

Here you could be a nobody or a somebody. It was all up to you - and that always elusive stroke of luck.

Frankie like that the sun always shone. He loved that there was always a warm breeze wafting through Los Angeles.  
He did not like the occasional earthquake and working through his lunch break.

And he absolutely hated the day he first met The Aquamaniac.

*

Ever since Frankie had seen the first of the Aquamaniac movies - “Aquamaniac and the Giant Tentacles of Doom” – he had wanted to work in the movie industry.  
He had been a teenager already by then, past the age where boys dreamed about being giant lizard super heroes who could defeat evil monsters single handed. But he still dreamed. About working in Hollywood.  
Not as an actor, but as someone behind the scenes, part of a well-oiled team. A tiny cog in the clockwork of movie-making, but maybe an important one.

He wanted to do special effects. And he really wanted to be the one to blow things up.

*

Frankie Santana worked hard towards this goal. There were a lot of setbacks, including his father, Leo Santana, having to go into a nursing home. Now Frankie had to work overtime so he could pay the fees and pay his own bills.  
It wasn’t easy and a lot of times he thought about giving up. But then he would watch one of the Aquamaniac movies again and he would remember his dream.

And finally, after lots of hard work and that elusive stroke of luck, he landed the job of special effects man for the new Aquamaniac movie.

*

When Frankie came down the morning of the day he would meet The Aquamaniac, he found a man with big glasses and a black suit sitting in his living room.

It was all very much like something from a spy movie and for a moment he wondered whether he was still dreaming.

“I am very much real, I assure you, Mr. Santana,” the man announced.  
“My name is Hunt Stockwell and you will be working for me from now on.”

“But I’m going to start with Universal Pictures today and ...”

“I am aware of that, Mr Santana. That hasn’t changed. Additionally, you will provide a little service for me.”  
Frankie laughed. The man even sounded like a bad guy in a spy movie.

“Yeah, man, right. Now leave, or I’ll call the cops.”

“You will do no such thing. You will go to the studios and do everything they tell you to do. If you do not, your father will suddenly find that the payments for his retirement home aren’t arriving. He will be forced to leave. Where will he get the care he needs, when his only son is working so hard just to pay for everything and couldn’t possibly care for him at home?”

“Sure,” Frankie answered sarcastically. His voice hardened.  
“Get out of my house now or... “ Frankie took a threatening step closer.

The man – Stockwell – remained unfazed.  
Frankie’s blood started to boil. No one told him what to do and no one threatened him that way.

Calmly Stockwell drew a piece of paper out of the pocket in his jacket.

“You do recognize this, Mr. Santana? Yes? Good. You are very well aware that the check with the money for Leo Santana’s nursing home needs to be posted today. Do you see the word ‘void’ that is now stamped on it? I can make that word disappear within an hour. If I do not, your father will be thrown onto the street tomorrow. Do you understand me now, Mr. Santana?”

Stockwell hadn’t raised his voice, but the last sentence had sounded so menacing that it raised the hairs on the back of Frankie’s neck.

He swallowed, then nodded.

“Good. Here’s what I want you to do...”

*

When Frankie arrived at Universal Studios, he was swept up into his dream for a while.  
Sights and sounds, people, costumes, trick buildings, everything was overwhelming.  
When he got to the set though, everyone greeted him like they’d known him for years, and Frankie felt right at home.  
Here he was in his element. Here he could do what he could do best.  
Here he was that clog in the well-oiled machine of movie making.

*

The Aquamaniac was a bit of a disappointment, after that.  
Basically it was just a rubber suit that did not look anywhere near as scary as it had in the movie.  
The guy playing the Aquamaniac was an old guy, with white hair and a slight belly, smoking a vile cigar.  
Frankie stared at him, trying to work out how to best approach him without letting his disappointment show. He needed to talk to the guy about the upcoming stunt. In typical Hollywood fashion they were shooting the big finale on the very first day of shooting, on his first day on set. Frankie got a bad taste in his mouth, because he was sure that this Stockwell guy had everything to do with it.

*

“Hey, kiddo,” an amused voice brought him out of his thoughts. “It’s not that scary.”

Frankie started and turned to see the white-haired guy grinning at him. He must have been staring at the rubber suit for a moment too long.

“I’m Johnny,” the white-haired guy said and Frankie shook his hand.

“Frankie Santana, the special effects guy,” he answered. “Oh, I don’t know, Johnny. He looked pretty scary to me in “Aquamaniac vs Godzilla” when he stepped up onto the beach, with the waves crashing in the background...”

*

By lunchtime, Frankie was exhausted.  
He’d finished the theoretical calculations for what the director wanted and had started to gather his equipment. It wasn’t the best, but he’d worked with worse. He just hoped it was up to the task he had to use it for.  
Frankie shuddered inside. At first he’d thought he could do what Stockwell asked of him.  
It would be with a heavy heart, because hurting someone – even a stranger - was not something he liked doing. But it was for his dad. And at least Stockwell hadn’t asked to kill him. Just hurt him enough to put him in hospital overnight.

The problem was, he liked Johnny.  
Johnny seemed to have taken him under his wing. He was always throwing an arm across Frankie’s shoulders, listening intently to him when he explained the special effects and what would blow up when, and seriously discussing the ins and outs of the Aquamaniac’s “character” with him.

Now Frankie was torn. He suddenly wished he was still a teenager who could just sit down to watch one of the old movies, and never have to make the hard decisions.  
But that was what growing up was all about, wasn’t it?  
Sighing, Frankie pushed back his tasteless french fries and got back to work.  
He had an idea.

*

If the star actor said he didn’t trust the special effects guy and Frankie got fired, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his part of the bargain and it wouldn’t be his fault, right?

“Listen, Johnny. This is my first time doing a stunt on a major production, and...”

“You’ll do fine, Frankie boy, I know it,” Johnny interrupted him, grinning around his cigar and clapping him on the shoulder.

“Are the effects ready yet?” the director asked. He brushed by Frankie irritably, surrounded by several harassed-looking men with clipboards

*

Frankie took his time with the set up.

He carefully filled the canisters with magnesium and sulfur, taking care to put in that extra bit that would turn the planned disaster into a real catastrophe, but not so much so that Johnny would be killed. He attached the electrodes to the canisters and ran the wires from the electrodes to the detonator.

Then he checked everything twice. He couldn’t afford a mistake. His father’s life depended on it.

This would be his best special effect and no one would ever know.

“Everyone on position! And ACTION!” yelled the director.

Frankie Santana took a deep breath and pressed the button.


End file.
